I would like to share an observation I made yesterday with my 10 yr. old son. He wanted to shoot his 22, and I said O.K. We drove about 3 miles from our house to an old irrigation ditch used to transport water when the rice farmers are wattering their rice. He had a pocket full of shells and started to hone his marksmenship skills. I had just worked off a 16 hr. shift and pretty tired. Living on the coast I always have a piggy perch pole in my vehicle. I decided to pass the time by catching a small grasshopper and try my luck. The ditch was 90% empty except for water in the pipe crossing the road and a little in the ditch itself. Seconds after the hopper hit the water I pulled in a small perch. Everything must seem large in kids eyes. How did you catch that perch Matthew asked. With a grasshopper I replied. It took him about ten minutes to catch his first hopper, but with it he landed 5 small perch. Definately a meal if hungry. I took advantage of this situation and explained that small fish are everywhere and very nutricious. A lesson in survival he will never forget. Next time I will show him how to make the ditch water drinkable. Now I have a question for our knowledgeable forum members. If fish are eaten raw, will the worms and parasites be destroyed by our stomach acid?

NO! And for connoisseurs of sushi the meat is "candled", which is the old term, and literal method of visual inspection and physical removal of parasitised portions. If you cannot cook fish with fire there are other preparations that enhance safety. You can of course air dry fish. Small fish can be simply mashed whole into a paste. Lastly fish can be marinated raw in citrus juices, salted or pickled. Parasitised fish are like water. If it's a choice between immediate survival and long term intestinal problems eat,drink and be wary. The fire you built will make a splendid cookout. Now a hidden danger is the stick you skewered the fish on. Is it a poisonous plant?

David,<br><br>It's also a good opportunity to demonstrate when & how to make a cookfire. You might even want to use, say, a ferrocerium (sp?) rod to enhance the example of survival technique.<br><br>BTW, I envy you that 3 mi. drive from home to a place where you can plink. I live in the suburbs of metropolis. For us, that kind of thing can't even happen in a 3 hour drive from our home. Fortunately our gunclub, by a curious chance (as I have often explained to my wife ;-} ), happens to be 1 mi. from our home. A large national forest & river are also 1/2 mi from home. All of that helps to city life a lot more tolerable. Still, my sons ( 9 & 12) can't plink and hunt right outside their house as I did when I was growing up.<br><br>Have fun,<br><br>John

No, the stomach acids will not destroy parasitic worms/eggs. This can be a serious problem, especially with fresh water fish. Pete

John,<br><br> I wanted to say times are changing but I think it might actually be the people. We used to roam the neighborhoods with our bb guns as kids, only to be offered cookies and milk from the ladies of the house. Now you will get a quick call to the police. Thanks for the suggestions. We have practiced ferrocerium rod fire starting, but only in the backyard. Next time it will be on location.<br><br>

If I would have answered this one on a test I would have got an X. I thought stomach acid was stronger than that. Flame roasted it will be.

Interesting about the marinated fish. It must be the exposure time to the acids that kills them. We learned a good lesson on a Scout trip about small sticks and vines. A good case of ivy or oak. I try to stay away from vines, except mustang grape which are plentiful here. This is one reason I have enrolled in a Naturalist course. I was speaking with our Scoutmaster Saturday, and very few people can identify our living greenery.

If possible, find some books on the ethnobotany of the plants native to your area and learn to identify them. Most books on survival I've seen cover uses of native plants. I learned quite a bit about local plants talking to my great-grandmother when I lived in Oklahoma. I still seek out the advice of the "old-timers" in the area I live in. Fortunately, much of that type of knowledge is being recorded in most areas. Have fun learning!

Me, I prefer grilled calamari.hehehe

Interesting to note that pinworm eggs are resistant to peracetic acid, which is used to "sterilize" items that go into germfree isolators. Many parasitic eggs are highly resistant to chemical destruction and are best removed by filtration or heat destruction (though cooking, steam sterilization or prolonged dry intense heat). Pete

David,<br><br>A lot of things are changing. We still own the ranch where I grew up, but the area is now heavily developed. As a boy, if I wanted to go hunting on the farms on other side of the road from our ranch, I had to walk 1/4 mile down the road to cross a bridge to over an agricultural canal. I routinely carried my shotgun resting on my shoulder as I walked down the road with traffic uneventfully passing me. Now the canal is filled; the other farms have become a giant block factory; and if I were to nostalgically carry my shotgun on my shoulder as I walked down the road in a quest for a rabbit stew, I'm sure I would be beseiged by at least 2 helicopter borne SWAT teams before I covered the 1/4 mile, with several news copters orbitting as they transmit live video feed shown real time on televisions nationwide while "newscasters" gravely comment on the need to ban assault weapons and stop my murderous swath across the countryside. ;-(<br><br>Oh, well, enjoy what you have while you have it.<br><br>John

talking about fish, I have been told that you can eat small fish as a whole. Just cut it up in pieces and bowl it. Is this true, and is it safe?

Not for the fish ;O) There are parasites adapted to everything from insects to whales. Some are harmfull and some are not. If you can catch the fish you can cook them many ways over a fire to kill the parasites.

I remember seeing this done on a survival show several years back. I didn't see the entire show but it was interesting. He caught small finger sized fish/minnows, cut off the heads and tails, and boiled the rest in a soup he concocted with some roots and mushrooms.<br><br>I was irked that he chose mushrooms as that's a very dangerous food to select under any circumstances, but more so in a survival situation when there's no help available if you misidentified the mushroom, which ven experts do from time to time.<br><br>

The show is called Ray Mear's Extreme survival and that's what I saw but coundn't remeber it fully so I asked it here.

I only saw the very end and have never seen the show other than that episode. Besides the mushrooms and whole fish, I remember that he used an empty pop can as a fish reel and that he had a backpacker pot to cook. Does anyone know if there was more thqan one episode?

billvann,<br>yes there was more then one episode. A few more series as well. I'm a big fan of ray mears and his show. I like his books as well. <br>as for picking mushrooms, I seem to remeber he did say as he picked them "but don't mess with these babys unless you know what you doing". <br>-james<br><br>